That's Idlout, not igloo

>> And make Lucie Idlout's reference PJ Harvey, ot Susan Aglukark

by CHRIS YURKIW

"I'm a poor ambassador for Inuit," says Lucie Idlout. "I'm a poor reflection of my culture--in a musical context. So I find it funny when people refer to me as an Inuk singer-songwriter, because there are no traditional components in the music or lyrics."

Well, "people" could be forgiven if they've seen, in the 27-year-old native of Iqaluit, a woman in a sealskin miniskirt who has in the past sung some of her songs in Inuktitut and whose ominous rock-based music does indeed incorporate musical and lyrical influences from her culture. And Idlout herself could be forgiven if her sentiments tend toward overcompensation for the predictable way she's been portrayed in the media since she went public with her music just two years ago. No artist wants their work obscured in the shadow of any kind of collective identity, be it ethnic, generic, or otherwise.

"I'm not trying to get away from the fact that I'm Inuk. I'm not trying to deny that. It's not about burying that," says Idlout, who also points out that she had a non-traditional upbringing: "Wasn't raised chewing on sealskin or taking care of dogs or anything like that.

"I just don't understand, necessarily, why somebody's origins reflect how their art is portrayed."

Perhaps because their art, in significant proportion, reflects their origins. But that's a bit of a whale bone of contention.

"I guess what I can say, culturally," says Idlout, "is that Inuit have always been very adaptable people and have always managed to adapt to extreme situations. And so I suppose in that context I'm adapting, artistically, to what I've been exposed to. And I've taken that in and chewed it up and spat it back out in a relative context to whatever else is going on in the world."

What Idlout has been exposed to, and embraces, is the music of Jane's Addiction, PJ Harvey and Rage Against the Machine--as well as a "pretty politicized" home environment overseen by her mother who worked for Inuit NGOs in Ottawa, where Lucie spent her adolescence and which currently serves as her southern base.

Before her debut independent album is released in February, Idlout and her band's signature song "Aija Ja" is the only recorded hint of things to come. It's a dark piece with a foreboding midtempo that begins without introduction and is bolstered by deep bass chords. Idlout chants the title phrase before switching to English while the music stays steadfast and the beat militant. She says the latest version of the song "rocks out more at end" and has "a much better build and a much stronger angst to it."

But Idlout wonders how it'll all go over this Friday in Berlin, where she she takes part in a showcase of five, largely traditional Canadian aboriginal acts assembled by the Canada Council and performing at the WOMEX 2000 "world music" conference.

"It's nice to be able to showcase your art to any audience who's interested in hearing what it's all about and curious to know what's happening with our people," says Lucie, "but I'm not sure that we won't be the devil when we go there." :

Idlout joins numerous other Native Canadian musicians at Berlin's Womex 2000 this weekend. A CD and Montreal performance are forthcoming